Forbidden food – Polish farmers fight on

The Polish farmers' protest camp for farmers’ rights and against GMOs is now in its fourth month of occupation

EXCERPT: Caring family farmers are crucial to the health and welfare of the food chain and therefore of all people. The Polish government clearly thinks otherwise, and is abandoning its own farmers, placing the country's fate in the hands of vast supermarket chains and the denatured sterile products of the globalised food industry.—

Forbidden food – Polish farmers fight on

ICPPC - International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside, 4 May 2015

The Polish farmers' protest camp, also known as "Green City" is now in its fourth month of occupation of a site exactly opposite the Prime Minister's Palace in Central Warsaw.

In spite of the fact that most farmers are now back on the land, sowing their Spring crops, a steady rota continue to maintain an uninterrupted presence at the Green City camp. The banners and placards that adorn the site act as a permanent statement of protest against the government's continued refusal to support the farmers' demands.

Two or three days a week, talks and film shows take place in support of the vigil. These sessions go under the title "Academy of Self Sufficiency and Health" and attract a steady flow of curious participants.

Meanwhile government intransigence continues. Any dialogue that does take place between farmers leaders and government officials, ultimately gets nowhere. The farmers know that it is going to be a hard-fought battle to get their farmhouse foods legalised for public sale, and get an act through parliament that bans the sale of prime Polish farmland to foreign corporate speculators. Then there is their third key demand: secure proper parliamentary backing for a permanent ban of GMO something not yet achieved under the present ban which leaves the country's bio-security dangerously vulnerable to further corporate interference and governmental corruption.

To further highlight the message behind the protests, we staged a short drama "Forbidden Foods" in which farmers participated:http://youtu.be/U1Klvnpznwc

So the battle goes on. Caring family farmers are crucial to the health and welfare of the food chain and therefore of all people. The Polish government clearly thinks otherwise, and is abandoning its own farmers, placing the country's fate in the hands of vast supermarket chains and the denatured sterile products of the globalised food industry.

We at ICPPC continue to support the farmers' demands. We see them as integral to maintaining the small and medium sized mixed family farms that are the time honoured basis for national food security and food sovereignty.